England V Belgium 5:15pm ITV

Rhys Essien

This Belgian team looks good and are one for the future.

I predict a draw or a Belgian win and put a dent in English preparations.

Here Phillipe Albert (ex-Newcastle great player)reviews the Belgian team.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/euro2012/article-2153454/Euro-2012-Belgium-team-Philippe-Albert.html

ConorSTF

Looking forward to this. Nothing better to do with the weather anyway.

Cardinal Richelieu

I think Belgium can be a pretty good team in the future if they can find a decent striker and a good coach. Them and Switzerland could be the new up and coming European teams for the next 6 years.

Paully D

The Belgium team is very good on paper but apparently there's a split in the camp between players from the north and south of the country.

_blank_

Paully D wrote: »

The Belgium team is very good on paper but apparently there's a split in the camp between players from the north and south of the country.

Walloons -v- Flemish.

Jax Teller

#ENG Hart - Johnson, Cahill, Terry, Cole - Parker, Milner - Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gerrard, Young - Welbeck


#BEL Mignolet - Gillet, Kompany, Vermaelen, Vertonghen - Fellaini, Dembele - Mertens, Witsel, Mirallas - Hazard

V9

looking forward to seeing Hazard play. Will Lukaku start up top for The Belgians?

Nuri Sahin

V9 wrote: »

looking forward to seeing Hazard play. Will Lukaku start up top for The Belgians?

Hazard will lead the line playing as a false no.9

______

Is this Welbeck's first start for England?

Meglamonia

Really looking forward to seeing Hazard

But also the rest of the Belgian team,what an exciting young team they have!

V9

Belgium team: Mignolet, G Gillet, Vertonghen, Kompany (c), Vermaelen, Mertens, Witsel, Mirallas, Hazard, Fellaini, Dembele.

That Dembele fella is a chelsea target too isnt he? Lets see how he links up with Hazard.

MagicMarker

Should be a decent game...

Probably won't be.

SirDelboy18

Not that I care, but if Andy Carroll starts ahead of Danny Welbeck in the first two games then England should be laughed at.

kitakyushu

Paully D wrote: »

The Belgium team is very good on paper but apparently there's a split in the camp between players from the north and south of the country.

Is that actually true tho? Seems a bit of a cliche like the way one hears stories about how the Dutch team has supposedly always had infighting between the black guys and the white guys.

I wonder do other countries talk about factions in the Irish team? eg between players born in the Republic and our UK players like Gibson and McClean. :pac:

jive

SirDelboy18 wrote: »

Not that I care, but if Andy Carroll starts ahead of Danny Welbeck in the first two games then England should be laughed at.

Why? It's not like there is that much between the two, Carroll, despite having a shíte season, has more of a presence than Welbeck. If Caroll can play in any way, shape or form like he did for the half an hour he was on in the FA cup final then I'd have him ahead of Welbeck every day of the week. I'd have Rooney and Welbeck up top because they are club mates and know how each other play, saving Carroll for when you get desperate in the last half hour of a match. When Rooney's missing though, I'd probably go with Carroll.

ceegee

kitakyushu wrote: »

Paully D wrote: »

The Belgium team is very good on paper but apparently there's a split in the camp between players from the north and south of the country.

Is that actually true tho? Seems a bit of a cliche like the way one hears stories about how the Dutch team has supposedly always had infighting between the black guys and the white guys.

I wonder do other countries talk about factions in the Irish team? eg between players born in the Republic and our UK players like Gibson and McClean. :pac:

Nah its a generally a person from Cork / everyone else split in our camp

Jimmy Iovine

Kompany is supposed to have gotten injured in the warm up.

kevohmsford

Belgium for the win. Should be a decent game.

bwatson

Will we be getting regular Hawkeye visualizations when it comes to shots, crosses and long passes today I wonder?

Would be great to see, very similar to cricket coverage, where the ball would have ended up had it not been blocked, deflected, swerved etc.

The Volt

Kompany injured in the warm up

kitakyushu

I hope England play a bit better than that game v Norway. It was like watching paint dry.

bwatson

kevohmsford wrote: »

Belgium for the win. Should be a decent game.

Lots of people were predicting Belgium for the win when it came to the Euros. Didn't even qualify in the end.

2-1 win to England I think.

GavRedKing

Hazard hat trick :pac:

kitakyushu

England haven't lost a final pre-tournament friendly since 1990. Tho it probably helps when you're cherry picking some fairly bad opposition on the whole.

653  22.05.1990 Wembley         Uruguay          1- 2

683  03.06.1992 Helsinki        Finland          2- 1   

718  23.05.1996 Beijing         China            3- 0

743  29.05.1998 Casablanca      Belgium          0- 0 

765  03.06.2000 Ta'Qali         Malta            2- 1 

787  26.05.2002 Kobe            Cameroon         2- 2

810  05.06.2004 Manchester      Iceland          6- 1

834  03.06.2006 Manchester      Jamaica          6- 0

...  30.05.2010 Graz            Japan            2 - 1

kevohmsford

If England win this game expectations will reach fever pitch.

bwatson

kevohmsford wrote: »

If England win this game expectations will reach fever pitch.

Really? Or are you just drawing on tired stereotypes?

Expectation in Ireland is far higher than in England even though Ireland have a considerably tougher group. I know there is a lot on in Britain at the moment what with the Jubilee and the Olympics, but on the whole the population of Engand seemed to have been hardly caught up in the pre-tournament events and emotions at all.

Rhys Essien

ceegee wrote: »

Nah its a generally a person from Cork / everyone else split in our camp

Ah I see,thats why the Irish team has no players from Cork in it.

kitakyushu

Rhys Essien wrote: »

Ah I see,thats why the Irish team has no players from Cork in it.

Great bit of management by Trap there.

Paully D

Good luck Mignolet. What a great couple of years he's had. 23 years old and he's played 50 Premier League games and became Belgium's first choice :cool:

Rhys Essien

kitakyushu wrote: »

Great bit of management by Trap there.

Is it?

Considering over 500,000 people live there.Would have given us a bit more inclusion so to speak.

Johner

Hazard to score anytime and Belguim to win. 20/1 worth a tenner.

Dozen Wicked Words

Should be a good game, Belgium shot themselves in the foot in qualifying for the Euros. Conceded very late goals against Azerbaijan and Austria which cost them. Looking forward to seeing Hazard and maybe Lukaku might get a few minutes. Any pace at all will test Cahill and Terry, but still, hopefully a good England performance, not bothered about the win, the tournament is when it counts. Incidentally, hate the red badge on the shirt, hopefully they will go back to the old badge after this shirt.

MagicMarker

They keep saying the officials won't be involved with the goal line tech, so if there is a close call today the tech won't actually be used to make the right call?

Hank Scorpio

Heard this Hazard lad aint bad

Sergio

As an an arsenal fan im looking forward to see Alex oxalade chamberlain playing.Delighted to see him get a start!

kevohmsford

Belgium have started well with some nice passing.

Samich

6 year since Crouch scored a hat trick v Jamaica, hard to believe 6 years :eek:

Turtyturd

At least he shot....I think.

Dozen Wicked Words

Good few Belgians in the crowd considering its only a friendly.

everdead.ie

Why does it sound like the Wembley crowd are cheering for Belgium?

Turtyturd

I actually think the commentators faux low expectations are more annoying than the usual 'we're going to win it' stuff.

Professional Griefer

What a ****

MagicMarker

Hart very poor there.

grohlisagod

Subtlety is clearly not Mertens' strong point.

jive

even though the whistle had gone he did some job getting it in from that angle to be fair!

bwatson

Turtyturd wrote: »

I actually think the commentators faux low expectations are more annoying than the usual 'we're going to win it' stuff.

Only because it means that people have to find another reason to give to their dislike of England :pac:

kitakyushu

bwatson wrote: »

Only because it means that people have to find another reason to give to their dislike of England :pac:

I just stick to first principles and let the poor quality of their football be the reason.

bwatson

kitakyushu wrote: »

I just stick to first principles and the quality of their football be the reason.

Is this the reason most Irish fans decide to support an English club then? A dislike of unattractive football?

Turtyturd

bwatson wrote: »

Only because it means that people have to find another reason to give to their dislike of England :pac:

Or maybe just because it's really annoying.

J. Marston

That annoys me so much. The Belgian guy shoved Cahill in the back with both hands obviously trying to make him clatter into Hart, Cahill did and then the Belgian guy comes over with the fake concern for him.

Hope he gets a good kick up the hole.

kitakyushu

bwatson wrote: »

Is this the reason most Irish fans decide to support an English club then? A dislike of unattractive football?

I've no idea. You'd have better luck asking people who fit that description.

Paully D

Who the **** is Azar? :pac: